- Five minutes left.
- The pressure cooker.
(rock music) (gasping)
Don't chill too hard.
- [Britteny] I see you.
(screeching) - Talk about pressure.
- Anxiety. (laughing)
- Yo, what's poppin' everybody,
I'm your host, Conceited
and this is MTV's Sneaker Wars.
We're the only show where two shoe customizers
go head-to-head and kick-to-kick.
But not only for braggin' rights,
but for a chance to take home the Sneak Award trophy.
Each sneakerhead must take one classic kick,
one fire theme, and one secret element
to remix them into a never before seen creation.
Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose.
And of course, as always, I did not come alone.
So, with me today are my co-judges,
you've seen her on Wildin' Out,
she's also an NBA host and sneaker influencer,
Brittney Elena. (laughing)
And of course, we got the sneakerhead
of all sneakerheads, my man, Sean Wotherspoon.
- What up, how ya' doin'? - What's up man?
- Chillin'.
- Are you ready to see some kicks?
- Happy to be yo, I can't wait.
- To my left we have Nicolle a.k.a. Kat.
- Hey, I'm Nicolle and I'm the owner
of Katty Customs, my custom shoes
cost anywhere between 250 to about 1500.
One of my favorite customers was Victor Oladipo,
he's a professional basketball player.
He was a thingamajig on The Masked Singer
and it was cool to customize a shoe to match that.
- Goin' against Nicolle, we have,
my man, the Sneaker Mechanic.
- Yo what's up, my name is Ben Johnson,
a.k.a. the Sneaker Mechanic
and I am a full-time
sneaker customizer from Temecula, California.
So, my shoes range from anywhere from 250
to, say, 1000 bucks.
I've worked with Tyga, Billie Eilish, The Game,
a few other NFL players and stuff like that.
- So are y'all ready to see what shoes
we're gonna be customizin' today?
- Yeah. - I'm ready man.
- Let's bring 'em out. (suspenseful music)
Woo.
The Balenciaga Speed Trainers.
This shoe fuses luxury with street
making it one comfy sock you can rock.
And for such a luxury shoe
we wanted to take today's theme
to an extra special event.
We're goin' to the prom.
And now, the must-use element.
Reflective material.
These shoes gotta shine.
Let's get some time up on the clock
and let's get it poppin'. (whimsical music)
- What I feel about the prom theme,
I thought it was amazing.
Prom is very special, it's really a time
for a person to bring their inner beauty out.
- Really, I always thought of prom
as like the time to kind of show out,
you know, I wear a whole tux.
It was a really fun experience for me.
- I'm excited to see what they're gonna do.
- Yeah, I'm really hyped.
If we ever get a pair of these in our store,
post 'em on Instagram, they are gone in like.
I'm tellin' you, it's one of those shoes
where-- - Reserve?
- Yo, 15 people might come in in a hour
just to get 'em. - When you customize
an expensive designer shoe,
does that lower the value?
Or do you think it raises it up?
- When we're not talking, it's silent.
- Are y'all even breathin'? - It is like, frickin', yeah.
- Hey girl. - Hey, how you doin'?
- I'm good, how are you? - I'm great.
- So, I noticed that you don't have anything
sketched on, it's all freehand.
- Yeah, everything is freehand.
My specialty is doing everything freehand,
using no stencils, no taping, no anything.
Just straight to it.
I'm on a time-crunch right now
and I don't want anything to slow me down.
So right now, what I'm doing,
I'm paintin' the midsole black
and then from there
I'm gonna go ahead and paint
the upper part of the shoe red.
The whole goal is to make it look like a tuxedo.
From there, what I'm gonna do,
is add the glitter along the midsole
and then add the bow tie onto the upper part
and then add all the reflective materials on the shoe.
- What up, Ben, how are you? - Good, bro, I'm good, man.
- Not much, you don't need to tell us too much
but what's your plan for the shoe,
I'm excited, you know. - Close your ears.
So when they first gave me the idea of prom
the first thought that comes to my mind
is like a "Goodfellas",
kind of early 1900s kind of vibe.
After I got the base lines down
I'm gonna go ahead and mix some black paint
and some fabric thinner,
because it's a mesh material,
I want to make sure that the fabric
is nice and soft and that the paint can really
ease into the cracks.
And with these shoes, they always have shoelaces on them
so what I'm gonna do is go ahead
and poke some holes into the shoe
and add some eyelets.
- I see you've worked with,
you did some for Billie Eilish?
- It was cool, man, you know her style is so crazy.
- Yo, she's got real dope style.
- She's very kind of out there and exotic
and I did some Takashi Murakami Air Force One's
for her with some chain laces.
Yeah, she really like them.
- 30 minutes. - There we go,
the pressure cooker. - That's when you see
all the talent come just flyin' out.
(techno music)
Ben, where did you get the name, Sneaker Mechanic?
- I was thinkin' the same thing
lookin' at his shoe.
- Honestly bro, my brother was a mechanic
and we just started get to thinkin' about it.
- And you're the Sneaker Mechanic.
- I like shoes and cars, combine the two.
- And Nicolle, where does Katty come from,
are you just a catty person, or?
- It came to me in a dream.
- A dream? - Are you sure?
- Yeah, absolutely with my logo and everything.
- Do you find that you have a lot of dreams like that,
that inspire you? - Yeah, absolutely.
- How'd you come up with Conceited?
'Cause you're not cute. - Dream?
- Who's not? (scoffing)
(upbeat music)
- Okay. - Is that a corsage?
- No, wow. - That's so cute.
- Wow. - You so girly.
- Like, these shoes are goin' to prom together.
- Five minutes left. - Man.
Time to get stressed. - Anxiety.
- Yo, the black laces though.
It's a good look. - Of course.
- It's a good look, he transformed it.
Like I said, that looks like a hard shoe.
Ben got "The Godfather" thing. - Yep.
- She's got the whole. - Godmother.
- I want to wear that,
instead of heels, I'm wearin' that.
- Now those are fire. - If batman had to go to prom,
I can see him wearin' those.
- Is she havin' a gas mask, what is goin' on?
- I'm so happy, I've been waitin' for somebody
to throw on the gas mask.
- Okay Katty Customs, I see you.
- It's likely the resident evil.
(laughing)
He is gettin' stressed out there.
The hand's shakin'.
10, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one.
Time's up, time's up, time's up!
- Stop everything!
- That's it. (trumpeting)
Let's see.
Ben, what you got?
- I went with early 1900s, "Goodfellas",
classic tuxedo dress shoe.
I wanted to give the shoe a nice little shine
and so I did some gold eyelets,
gold shoe lace tips and then a gold
little trim as well along the sides.
Just a nice, clean, simple look.
- Katty? - The theme was prom
so I figured I'd change the shoe into an actual suit.
I used the color red because that color pops,
it screams, I added the boutonniere
and then I also wanted to put the bow tie on top
and add glitter to that.
I also put out a diamond from the hidden element
to put inside the flower,
then I thought, "That'll make it pop
"and make it stand out a little bit more."
- Goin' go over with my co-judges,
put your kicks up. - Gimme!
- Bring 'em up. - Gimme.
- And y'all get kicked out, wow.
(laughing)
(rhythmic music)
- All right.
- I mean, they both fully transformed them.
That's needless to say.
- This definitely looks like a whole new boot.
- Even how he added that white
to make it look like it was a patent leather.
- Honestly, I'm not gonna lie,
I feel like this is more of a everyday work shoe,
I don't think of prom
when I look at this shoe right here.
- It's not screaming prom, yeah.
- But with this, I see full blown prom.
- Yeah, yeah. - Prom night.
- Bow. - Lose your virginity.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
I love the gold on the Balenciaga though,
the eyelets, it all looks so perfect.
- Did you even look at the little beads?
- [Sean] Yeah, that's crazy.
- And then, one key thing, it's freehand.
- True, that's a big deal. - The precision on the line.
- Look at those lines. - It's freehand.
And I love the matte. - No tape.
- Nothing, and she did that. - Crazy.
- I think we deliberated and I think we got it.
- Think we got it? - I think we got it.
- Call 'em in?
Let's bring 'em in!
All right, welcome back, welcome back.
I'm gonna start off with you, Ben.
Britteny. - I love it.
I love that you put the laces in it.
You literally changed the shoe.
I see myself wearing this,
not even just to prom, on a daily basis.
I do wish that you put a little bit more
of the hidden element.
I do like that you have the gold a little bit
but I just feel like it just needed
a little bit more of a pop.
- I love the full transformation
and I think you killed it based on your theme.
Like the "Goodfellas", the Italian mobster.
I think for me, it veered off a little bit
of the prom theme, nonetheless,
it's a great shoe, you killed it.
The shine on the front, it was low-key genius.
You know? - Thank you, bro, yeah.
- Movin' on, Britteny?
- Girl, Nicolle, you literally, it speaks prom.
I love the bow, you used the hidden elements
very well. - Yeah, it's a great shoe.
I tend to like more of a toned down shoe,
something I see as like very approachable,
you can pull it off the shelf and wear it,
but I mean, given the theme and everything,
you killed it.
- All right, you guys both did great
but this is Sneaker Wars.
Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose.
And the winner for today of the prom night is
Nicolle. - Aw, thank you.
(laughing)
Yeah! (laughing)
I am so happy that I won, you guys.
This is a dream come true.
There are girls out here who customize shoes
and I want to inspire every girl who is into art,
who want to customize sneakers, or anything,
you can do this.
- You know, Nicolle is a crazy good artist.
You know, her shoe was insanely clean.
If she's ever willing to go against me again,
bring it Nicolle, but I'm humbled,
it was a great opportunity.
- Thank y'all for watchin'.
This was MTVs Sneaker Wars
and we'll see you next time
when we're all gonna kick it, peace!
(techno music)